Theme 4: Reflection

I will begin this week's reflection with a very simplistic observation I hope you'll forgive me for: I think it may be possible that design researchers get to have more fun than other researchers. What I mean to say is that while these scientists are testing and developing new technologies and concepts, it seems like they may have a lot more room for creativity and progress than standard qualitative or quantitative research. Perhaps I don't know what I'm talking about, but the title of this week's article helps my point:  "Comics, Robots, Fashion and Programming: outlining the concept of actDresses." Any team that can fir the words comics, robots and fashion into its title, must have had a little more enjoyment than the typical study.
I am going somewhere with this. My seemingly shallow observation made me wonder why this could be, and considering what we have learned this week about qualitative analysis and design research, I think there may be some truth to this idea where theory is concerned. Design research seems to be designed to create knowledge of a different sort from qualitative analysis, which typically is used as a form of observation of observable concepts, frequently in behavioral science. Where a qualitative analysis may yield truths of interactions and behaviors, design research captures the imagination in a different way by using theoretically designed ideas, translated into physical procedures or products. Not to get too ahead this week, Dr. Li's paper is a good example of a very creative idea engineered to become a physical reality, and then tested. Certainly not all design research happens at the prototype level, but I think the theory is similar. When the Kista team who wrote our article designed their study I get the impression they had a lot of creative effort to imagine the somewhat abstract theories of semiology they created.
My journal article,  "The psychology behind QR codes: User experience perspective" was a qualitative analysis of the user interaction behind the growth of this technology, but first there had to be QR codes to relate to. If we were to look back at those original experiments, where the Toyota engineers thought to themselves, "how can we make a better barcode to quickly categorize our car parts," they began research into the design of what would become those little square codes we now see more and more. It is the theory behind the imagination required to create completely new knowledge leading to creative innovation that I think is very interesting in this design method.